PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: higher education
German chemist
Justus, baron von Liebig German chemist who made significant contributions to the analysis of organic compounds, the organization of laboratory-based chemistry education, and the application of chemistry...
American philosopher and educator
John Dewey was an American philosopher and educator who was a cofounder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, an innovative theorist of democracy, and a...
British nurse, statistician, and social reformer
Florence Nightingale British nurse, statistician, and social reformer who was the foundational philosopher of modern nursing. Nightingale was put in charge of nursing British and allied soldiers in Turkey...
German-American anthropologist
Franz Boas was a German-born American anthropologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the founder of the relativistic, culture-centred school of American anthropology that became dominant in...
Canadian physician
Sir William Osler, Baronet Canadian physician and professor of medicine who practiced and taught in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain and whose book The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892)...
Canadian political leader
Michael Ignatieff Canadian author, literary critic, and politician who represented the Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding in the Canadian House of Commons (2006–11) and who served as leader of the Liberal Party...
American chemist
Ellen Swallow Richards American chemist and founder of the home economics movement in the United States. Ellen Swallow was educated mainly at home. She briefly attended Westford Academy and also taught...
Scottish physician and professor
William Cullen was a Scottish physician and professor of medicine, best known for his innovative teaching methods. Cullen received his early education at Hamilton Grammar School, in the town where he was...
American educator
Emma Willard American educator whose work in women’s education, particularly as founder of the Troy Female Seminary, spurred the establishment of high schools for girls and of women’s colleges and coeducational...
American psychologist
G. Stanley Hall was a psychologist who gave early impetus and direction to the development of psychology in the United States. Frequently regarded as the founder of child psychology and educational psychology,...
United States senator
Roy Blunt American politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and represented Missouri in that body from 2011 to 2023. He previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives...
American educator
Alice Elvira Freeman Palmer American educator who exerted a strong and lasting influence on the academic and administrative character of Wellesley (Massachusetts) College during her brief tenure as its...
American educator
Mary Lyon American pioneer in the field of higher education for women and founder and first principal of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the forerunner of Mount Holyoke College. Lyon began teaching in Massachusetts...
American educator and historian
Drew Gilpin Faust American educator and historian who was the first female president of Harvard University (2007–18). Gilpin grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where her parents raised Thoroughbred...
American educator
Abbie Park Ferguson American educator, a founder and preserver of Huguenot College as the only women’s college in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ferguson was the daughter of a...
American author
Allan Nevins American historian, author, and educator, known especially for his eight-volume history of the American Civil War and his biographies of American political and industrial figures. He also...
pope
Gregory XIII was the pope from 1572 to 1585, who promulgated the Gregorian calendar and founded a system of seminaries for Roman Catholic priests. Educated at the University of Bologna, he taught jurisprudence...
American educator
M. Carey Thomas American educator and feminist and the second president (1894–1922) of Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Carey Thomas, as she preferred to be known, was the daughter of a modestly...
American official
Donna Shalala American educator, administrator, and public official who was secretary of health and human services (1993–2001) under U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton and who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives...
American missionary and educator
Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills American missionary and educator who, with her husband, established what would become the first U.S. women’s college on the west coast. Susan Tolman graduated from Mount Holyoke...
American educator
Laura Drake Gill American educator, remembered particularly for her role in establishing organized placement assistance for educated women. Gill was educated at Smith College. After graduating in 1881...
American scholar
I. Michael Heyman American scholar known for his academic career at the University of California at Berkeley and for spearheading the digitization of the archives of the Smithsonian Institution during...
American librarian and missionary
Mary Elizabeth Wood American librarian and missionary, whose efforts brought numerous libraries to China and established a strong program in that country to train librarians. Wood grew up and attended...
American educator and reformer
Julia Strudwick Tutwiler American educator and reformer who was responsible for making higher education in Alabama more readily available to women through her association with several colleges and universities....
American educator and military officer
Katherine Amelia Towle American educator and military officer who became the first director of women’s marines when the regular U.S. Marine Corps integrated women into their ranks. Towle graduated from...
American educator and historian
Emily James Smith Putnam American educator and historian, remembered especially for her early influence on the academic quality of Barnard College in New York City. Emily Smith graduated from Bryn Mawr...
prime minister of Canada
Louis Saint Laurent Canadian statesman and jurist who, as Liberal prime minister in 1948–57, helped to maintain Canadian unity and to bring about reforms. Saint Laurent studied at St. Charles College (Sherbrooke)...
American politician and educator
Hiram Rhodes Revels American clergyman, educator, and politician who became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate (1870–71), representing Mississippi during Reconstruction. He was a member...
American educator
Ellen Fitz Pendleton American educator who served as president of Wellesley (Massachusetts) College for a quarter of a century. Pendleton graduated from Wellesley College in 1886. She remained at Wellesley...
American priest and educator
Theodore Hesburgh American Roman Catholic priest and educator under whose presidency (1952–87) the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, became as respected for its academic record as for its...
American teacher, historian, and author
Jacques Barzun was a French-born American teacher, historian, and author who influenced higher education in the United States by his insistence that undergraduates avoid early specialization and instead...
American inventor
George Washington Pierce American inventor who was a pioneer in radiotelephony and a noted teacher of communication engineering. The second of three sons of a farm family, Pierce grew up on a cattle ranch...
American literary critic and teacher
Elaine Showalter American literary critic and teacher and founder of gynocritics, a school of feminist criticism concerned with “woman as writer…with the history, themes, genres, and structures of literature...
Orthodox theologian
Petro Mohyla Orthodox monk and theologian of Moldavian origin who served as metropolitan of Kiev and who authored the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church. He reformed Slavic...
American photographer
Arthur Siegel photographer noted for his experimental photography, particularly in colour, and for his contributions to photographic education. Siegel already had 10 years of experience in photography...
American educator
Nathan Pusey American educator, president of Harvard University (1953–71), who greatly enhanced the school’s endowment and educational facilities and revitalized its teaching of the humanities. From 1971...
American scholar
Jill Ker Conway Australian-born American scholar, the first woman president of Smith College (1975–85), whose research as a historian focused on the role of feminism in American history. Jill Ker grew...
American educator
Maria Louise Sanford American educator remembered for the innovation and inspiration she brought to her teaching. Sanford graduated from the New Britain Normal School in 1855 and then taught school in...
Scottish physician and antiquarian
Sir Robert Sibbald Scottish physician and antiquarian, who became the first professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh (1685), which became thereafter, for more than a century, one of the greatest...
American geologist
Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin was a U.S. geologist and educator who proposed the planetesimal hypothesis, which held that a star once passed near the Sun, pulling away from it matter that later condensed...
British economist
Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins economist and leading figure in British higher education. Robbins was educated at the University of London and the London School of Economics (LSE). After periods...
American academician and administrator
Nannerl Overholser Keohane American academician and administrator who gained particular prominence when she became the first woman president of Duke University in Durham, N.C. Keohane received an undergraduate...
American historian
Lucy Maynard Salmon American historian who extended the offerings in history during her long tenure at Vassar College. She also was instrumental in building a library there of high scholarly merit. Salmon...
American educator
Abby Lillian Marlatt American educator who brought a strong academic base to the university programs in home economics that she established. Marlatt graduated from Manhattan’s Kansas State Agricultural...
British politician
Augustine Birrell was a politician and man of letters whose policies, as British chief secretary for Ireland (1907–16), contributed to the Easter Rising of Irish nationalists in Dublin (1916). A lawyer...
French neurologist
Jean-Martin Charcot was the founder (with Guillaume Duchenne) of modern neurology and one of France’s greatest medical teachers and clinicians. Charcot took his M.D. at the University of Paris in 1853...
British surgeon
Berkeley George Andrew Moynihan, 1st Baron Moynihan British surgeon and teacher of medicine who was a noted authority on abdominal surgery. Shifting his interests from a military life to a career in medicine,...
American educator
Mary Emma Woolley American educator who, as president of Mount Holyoke College from 1901 to 1937, greatly improved the school’s resources, status, and standards. Woolley graduated in 1884 from Wheaton...
American educator
Arabella Mansfield American educator who was the first woman admitted to the legal profession in the United States. Belle Babb graduated from Iowa Wesleyan University in 1866 (by which time she was known...
American astronomer
Mary Watson Whitney American astronomer who built Vassar College’s research program in astronomy into one of the nation’s finest. Whitney graduated from public high school in 1863 and entered Vassar College,...